Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1887-11-30
Across the Channel.

From the London Telegraph October IA.
Our Dover correspondent, telegraph
ing yesterday, says:
This morning, after two previous
unsuccessful attempts, owing to the
high wind anu rain damaging the bal
loon, Mr.. Morton, a Birmingham
aeronaut, made successful ascent at
Dover for the purpose of crossing the
Channel. The balloon used was new
one, in which an ascent had only once
previously been made. Its cubic ca
pacity is much smaller than that in
which the previous attempt had been
made, although it stood quite so
feet high when it was fully inflated. 1t
is made Of q new kind of material, ard
Mr.. Morton's object in selecting this
particular balloon was to test it's
holding capacity, the great drawback
IN ordinary balloons being that the
gas permeates through the material of
which it is composed, and renders
them incapable of remaining long in
the air. The balloon in which he as
cended this morning is made of fine
cambria, covered with a. thin coat
ing of India rubber. By the
time the Initiation was completed,
blage of spectators. Shortly before
IL Mr.. Morton entered the car. He
took with him an aneroid barometer,
q compass, a carrier pigeon, and the
usual tackle attaching to q balloon.
The only provisions placed in the car
were q few sandwiches, bottle con-
tanning soup, and some fruit. Mr..
Morton made the ascent alone, the
balloon not being large enough for two
persons. 1t was found when he en-
tered the car that the balloon was
too heavily weighted to rise, and, al
though only q moderate quantity of
ballast had been placed in the car,
one-half of this had to be sacrificed, the
ascent being made with only six small
bags of ballast small quantity for
g. Journey over the sea. At
1880 O'Clock Mr.. Morton tried
the valve liney, and finding they were
quite safe, took q hasty farewell of
those around him and called out:
"Let CO." The balloon left the earth
very steadily at first, and then shot
up into the air to an altitude ofabout
1000 feet, amid the cheering Of the
spectators. The weather was beau
TRULY fine and bright, and the balloon
and aeronaut could be seen very dis
tinctly In the sunlight as they sailed
over the town toward the sea. At IL
o'clock, ten minutes after the ascent
was made, the balloon-which, as far
as it could be seen, behaved remark
ably steadily-passed over the cliffs,
q little to the westward of the castle.
AS soon as the Channel was reached
the balloon entered different current
of air, and from this time she sailed
away at the rate OF about twelve
miles an hour, up Channel, in the di-
was lost sight of in the haze. AS
far as could be seen, the aeronaut
appeared to have very little difficulty
with the balloon, which he kept at
about the same altitude. When it
was known that he had drifted up
Channel, considerable uneasiness was
felt; but this afternoon, on the ar
rival of the Calais boat. the captain
reported having seen it about three
miles Off the French coast, but drift
ng up Channel toward Ostend. This
Is the greatest distance balloon has
traversed over the Channel, and it is
by far the smallest in cubic capacity
of any hitherto used for the purpose.
A later telegram from our CORE
spondent states: "Mr. Morton, the
aeronaut, telegraphing from Loon,
near '>lnkirk, tonight, says he de-
scended safely near that place about
O'Clock, having had a very successful
voyage. The balloon, he says, an
swered better than any he has ever
assembled in''